Making It Up As They Go: Trump Team Now Pretending They Never Proposed 20% Wall Tax [View all]

Just hours after White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Donald Trump’s proposed border wall would be funded by a 20 percent tax on goods coming into the U.S., the administration is backing away, telling reporters that they were just suggesting “one way” to fund it.

“Our job right now isn’t to roll something out or be prescriptive,” Spicer said not long after rolling out the idea aboard Air Force One. “It’s to show that there are ways that the wall could be paid for. Full stop. That’s it.”

The full Spicer walk-back:

[blockquote style="border:1px solid #000000;"]
Cameron Joseph Verified account 
‏@cam_joseph

.@PressSec clarifies remarks on Mexico tariff, says they weren’t supposed to be “prescriptive," from the pool report I just filed:
5:34 PM - 26 Jan 2017







As Jason Easley noted earlier, the Trump spokesman had initially put forward the plan as if it was already in motion, saying that the 20 percent import tax was “taking shape.”

What likely happened, though, is that the administration saw the immediate backlash that ensued once Spicer made the first announcement. After all, Trump seems to spend most of his day watching cable news, and the response to the plan wasn’t good.
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